Derbyshire manufacturer wins Le Mans race contract

Repton-based Gibson Technology has landed a second contract to supply its engines to teams competing in endurance racing – including the world-famous Le Mans 24 Hours.

The Derbyshire firm has signed a new contract with Rebellion Racing and chassis constructor Oreca to supply LMP1 engines for the 2018/19 World Endurance Championship (WEC) Super Season.

The deal will see engines designed, developed and built by Gibson Technology compete on some of the most iconic race circuits around the world including Silverstone and Le Mans.

The contract with Rebellion Racing comes just three months after Gibson Technology agreed to supply LMP1 engines to DragonSpeed for the 2018/19 WEC Super Season.

Work is already underway on the specialist GL458 engines at Gibson Technology’s engineering facility with the first engine scheduled for delivery to Rebellion next month.

John Manchester, Gibson Technology’s operations director: “Everyone at Gibson Technology is delighted that our engines have been chosen by yet another top-flight team and sportscar constructor to compete at the highest level of world endurance racing.

“The new LMP1 engine contract with Rebellion Racing and Oreca is a natural progression for our company and we are extremely pleased to continue with the successful partnership that we formed with them during 2017, which will further enable us to develop our engine technology to compete against some of the top sportscar and engine manufacturers at the pinnacle of world sportscar racing. We are all very much looking forward to the exciting challenge ahead.”

Hugues de Chaunac, chief executive, ORECA Group, said: “ORECA has a great and successful relationship with Gibson Technology on the LMP2 program. So when we had to investigate the different options for an LMP1 engine, it made sense to talk about this project with Gibson and at the end it was an obvious choice. They have shown their abilities in sportscars for many years. We need a strong, reliable and competitive engine for the Rebellion R13 and we are confident we will have it with the Gibson V8. We will have a strong package and we are looking forward to it.”

Calim Bouhadra, vice-president of the REBELLION Group, said: “We are excited to make our come-back in LMP1 and to do this project with both ORECA and Gibson Technology. We had an excellent package in 2017 with the ORECA 07 chassis and the V8 Gibson engine and we made it successful by winning the FIA WEC title. We are really happy to continue this partnership. It was the natural step for REBELLION Racing and it will be for sure a great challenge. We all share the same motivation.”

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